We work really hard!

New Learning in Math and Science...

Yesterday, Dutton Hart, Thorsten's mom, worked with a small group of students to use Math in the real world.  They read, measured, mixed, and baked SMURFBERRY muffins and shared this delicious treat with all of us.  And yes, they were BLUE!  No artificial ingredients; their secret was blueberry jelly!  :)

If you'd like to volunteer to make a healthy treat with a group of 4 students, please drop me a note.  We love friends coming in to learn with us!

In the afternoon, Mrs. Romeo, the coordinator of our Four Winds Science Program, and Ms. Katie, our environmental studies graduate student, taught us some amazing facts about leaves and what they do for trees.  I hope all of you enjoyed our beautiful leaf rubbings!

We still need a parent volunteer to work with Katie and our children.  If this peaks your interest, drop me a note and I'll get you started.  It's great fun!

Reading the Morning Message together!

Positive Behavior Intervention System Presentation

I would like to invite all of my parents to a special presentation of PBIS by the PBIS committee teachers.  The teachers will explain all about this innovative program that is in its first year of implementation at Porter's Point School.  The teachers will explan how our new intervention system works, where we are now, and what the future looks like for our PBIS school.

This is a PTO sponsored event and begins @ 6:30 p.m. on November 10th at PPS.  See you there!

Skywriting our new letter!

October 24, 2011

Hello, Everyone,

This week we have been working on letters Mm,Cc, and Aa.  We name them, say their picture word, and say the sound the letter makes.  We practice them during our handwriting time and brainstorm words that begin with these letters.

We spend lots of time acquiring oral language skills at school.  These are the foundation for building both reading and writing skills.  We have begun to practice saying what we want to write during Writing Workshop.  We say what we want to write to our writing partner.  Then, we repeat this, counting the number of words we hear on our fingers as we speak.  We are learning that words have a one-to-one correspondence and we are just beginning to try to put each of those words on paper, one at a time, in the sequence that we say them.  We use “Spacemen” in between our words to space them apart as we write.

So, if your child is putting the first letter of the first sound she/he hears in a word, on their paper, I am ecstatic!  This is a very slow process, so we share and celebrate tiny successes each day and are learning to be patient with ourselves. 

This process will take all year for most children.  So, please compliment any writing you see your child doing this year.  For most of the year, you will need to ask your child to read what he/she wrote back to you.  We will spend all year learning to understand that readers read their writing and that all writing is meant to be read.  We will also spend all year listening for the sounds the letters make, so if you are helping your child practice the names and the sounds of the letters that we have worked on at school, you will really be helping your child.

Reading to your child each day is the most important thing that parents can do to help your child learn to read.  You are your child’s role model and when you enjoy books together at home, it enhances our enjoying books at school.  We read together several times each day.  We enjoy rhyming books, predictable stories, and famous children’s literature authors and illustrators.  We will imitate many of these authors and illustrators throughout the year as we practice becoming authors, ourselves.

Please continue to check your child’s backpack for a Reading at Home bag.  Enjoy!  Then, please remember to respond in your child’s journal each time your child reads to you.  Thanks.  We have a new reader for our Home Reading Program, Mr. Andreasson, Thorsten’s dad.  He is really enjoying this experience and the children love it when he comes to school.  Thank you for joining our classroom of emerging readers!

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble at the Flynn Theatre was a wonderful play with music, live characters doing pantomime, and puppets.  Back in the classroom, we compared the play with the book.  The children found lots of similarities and differences.  Then, we illustrated our favorite parts.

  In Math, we continue to work on our calendar skills and counting the number of days we have been in school.  We have had 35 school days and we will continue to count them until we reach the 100^th day!  The children are beginning to learn how place value in our number system works.  And, of course, we count, count, and count together.

Last week we had our first Safety Drill, a new experience for the children.  We do this a few times each year in preparation for an emergency other than a fire.  In this drill, we stay safe inside the PPS building.  Your children did an excellent job and I am so proud of them!  It’s difficult to remain quiet and still for 15 minutes!

As part of PBIS, our Positive Behavior Intervention System at Porter’s Point, the four kindergarten classrooms made a slideshow and video of many students demonstrating respect throughout the school day.  We shared this with the first and second graders at our whole school gathering on Wednesday.

On Friday, Mr. Allbee’s class helped us to begin to learn “The Thoughtful Song,” a song they composed that describes all of the ways we are learning to show respect to ourselves, our peers, our teachers, and to our whole school community.  I will send home a copy of the words when we have them memorized. 

Thanks to all families able to participate in “Four Days To Bring Change.”  We hope to let you know of the total amount collected for Vermont’s Irene victims, soon.

Just a reminder…Although it is still early in the school year we are trying to build our stamina for learning.  Please see that child is in bed by 7:30 p.m. so she/he gets plenty of rest.  We do a lot each day and are very busy!

A few dates to remember:

October 28^th @1:45 – Halloween parade

November 3^rd- PTO Potluck Supper

November 14^th – Nov. 18^th - Scholastic Book Fair to support our library

November 18^th – Report Cards come home

November 21^st – Parent Conference day

November 22^nd _ Thanksgiving Break

As always, feel free to contact me with your questions or comments.

Sincerely,

Diane T.

Visit us at Trombleyskindergarten.blogspot.com!

A Glimpse of Reader's Workshop!

Halloween Treats

Dear Parents,
Our room moms have done a wonderful job asking other parents to send in Halloween treats and supplies.  If you were not asked for this holiday, I promise that you will be asked for the next.  That way, everyone has the opportunity to take a turn.

Soon, written notice of how our Halloween Party will go, will come home.  In the meantime, please note that we will NOT be celebrating on October 31st, but WILL celebrate on Friday, October 28th.  The parade begins at 1:45 and all parents are invited to watch the parade.

Shaking our fingers loose to get ready to write!

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble was AWESOME.  Only 5 performers, music, dance, pantomime, and puppets!

October 10, 2011

Thank you to the Malletts Bay Fire Dept. for visiting us during Fire Prevention Week.  We climbed on and in a pumper truck and a ladder truck as Mrs. Kadish climbed all the way up the ladder!
Many thanks to Marvin's mom, Mrs. DiFonzo, for teaching us how to measure our ingredients for delicious "Firefighter Shakes!"

October 4,2011

October 4, 2011

Dear Parents,

Thank you to all who were able to attend our Open House last Thursday.  We had almost 100% attendance!  We hope you learned a lot about what we do in kindergarten.  Your children were so happy and enthusiastic about sharing with you.

A special thank you to all parents who were able to sign up for some volunteer positions.  We have parents who will be coming in for our one on one Emergent Reader program, and 4 parents who will work with small groups during Math time on Fridays to do some cooking, and especially measuring with students as they prepare treats for all of us.

We have had 2 birthdays, so far!  Thanks to parents for sending in special treats.  We do have a student with an egg allergy and it will be important to consider that when sending in future treats.  Whenever we have a birthday we create a birthday book for that child with wishes for them.  It’s fun and good reading practice, also!  This helps us practice reading each others’ names, an important skill and we discuss the things the students like in order to create special pages in our book for them.

Thank you for supporting our Project Inside Out fundraiser.  The children and I appreciate everything you do for us to help make our school a special place for learning and having awesome experiences.  Please try to attend our PTO Bingo Night on Friday, October 14, 2011 @ 5:00 p.m.  (It is so fun and worth eating dinner at school.)

Mr. Pecor, our P.E. teacher, tells me that we have some good soccer players in our kindergarten.  I’ve watched the children practicing their skills both inside and outside and they are having a great time.  (Lots of laughter, exercise, and fun games!)

We have been working hard learning the names of letters of the alphabet and the sounds they make.  We apply what we have learned and brainstorm words that begin with those sounds.  We form the letters as best as we can, and finally, we read an alphabet book of words and sentences that begin with the letter we have been studying. 

We have added the letters Ff and Nn to our daily Literacy work.  We will work on a new letter almost every other day.  Your child should know the name of these letters, the picture word that goes with them, and the sound that the letter makes by heart.  Everything we are able to read is stored in our Book Browser, a special container each student has to store books we are able to read.  If your child is reading at a higher level, she/he also is reading and storing those books in their browsers, too.  We read this selection of books over and over, until we can read them fluently, and with confidence.  As you see some of these come home in your child’s home folder, please encourage your child to read these to you and save them for future reading.  We need to practice reading a lot!

Today, you will find the letters of the alphabet printed on our 3 line format.  The top line is called, “the Hat line”.  The middle, dotted line is called, “the Belt line,” and the bottom line is called, “the Foot line.”  We refer to these lines when we are beginning to write a letter.  We looked at how the letters in our names are positioned on these lines and tried our best to write them, accurately.  I have sent home this format so that you can support your child when she/he writes.

Miss Joyce, our Foster Grandparent volunteer is able to be with us 3 days per week.  She works one on one with the children to implement the Home Reading program.  We are now established with this routine and are ready for parent volunteers to help us with this, too.  As our reading skills grow, children will be reading more challenging books and will want to share them with you.  Thanks for your support ahead of time, whether you are able to come to school or if you are reading with your child at home.

We use special pointers to “Read the Room” and we read numbers, letters, and words while moving freely about the room.

We have two new room parents, Nini Fenton, Ava’s mom, and Trisha DiFonzo, Marvin’s mom.  They may be calling you for donations of goodies planned for one of our holiday parties, soon.

We continue writing our numbers in Math.  Many of the children need help with their pencil grip.  Holding pencils, markers, and crayons correctly, with a three point grip, will make writing easier.  If you see your child holding her/his marker incorrectly, gently show how we hold our writing tools.  We continue our work with 2 part patterns and exploration with pattern block designs.  Many of our new math skills are acquired through games.  We learned how to play, “Roll and Record” with dice and “Spin A Number.”  Soon we’ll play “Spin A Number 11-20.”

We learned how to use colored pencils in Art a couple of weeks ago so we will use them to create an illustration of our homes.  We read a charming book that you may have also enjoyed, A House for Hermit Crab, by my favorite children’s author and illustrator, Eric Carle.  We will make these into a quilt so that we can enjoy the diversity of homes that we live in.

Sometimes you’ll see your child writing his/her name in upper case letters, sometimes, in lower case letters, and sometimes in both forms!  This is normal.  We gradually ask children to use an upper case letter only for the beginning of the name and lower case letters for the rest of the name as your child becomes ready. 

Our classes have been working on tying our shoes, too.  We have set a goal of being able to tie our shoes by Thanksgiving.  Please help us all succeed by practicing with your child at home. 

Here is a list of “How To” skills that we practice regularly:

*how to ride the bus safely

*how to pack and unpack our backpacks safely

*how to line up and walk down the hall safely

*how to pick up and care for our classroom materials safely and carefully

*how to use scissors safely and how to cut properly, as well as how to carry them safely.

*how to use “helpful” words and how not to use “hurtful” words

*how to play fairly

*how to be speak kindly and apologize, even when we bump or hurt someone accidentally

*how to choose an activity from our book browsers during Reading

*how to get our mouths ready to read and our pointer fingers ready to read underneath the letter or word.

*how to make sure our reading mouths and our fingers work together and match word for word

Some special reminders:

Please dress your child appropriately, for the weather.  Our playground can be very windy and cold.

Library books must come back to school in a plastic bag to protect the books.  If you can’t find the bag Mrs. Kadish, our librarian, has provided, please use a plastic grocery bag. Tuesday is library day. If your child forgets the library book, and brings it back to school on Wednesday, I am able to give them time to exchange their books for new ones.  Thanks.

 Our school district also has a website that contains valuable information on regular happenings at all the schools, a school calendar, etc.

This will be my last newsletter that I will send home in your child’s home folder.  Please go to the Colchester School District website, click on Porters Point School, click on teachers, and my name.  Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Putnam, we now have a Kindergarten blog!!!!!!

If your family does not have access to a computer, please drop me a note and I will be sure that I print a newsletter and send it home.

Have a wonderful week, everyone!

As always,

Diane

September 6, 2011 Newsletter

Hello, Everyone!

     We are off to a great start in room 14!  Your children are happy and excited about all the new things we have been learning.  I will send you classroom newsletters, regularly, to keep you informed of the skills and topics I introduce to your children.  Many of these skills will become part of our daily routine.  Our routine will grow in complexity as the children show me they are ready.

So, please be patient, and do not hesitate to ask me questions or express your concerns.  Since I am always supervising your children I may not be able to respond during the school day, but will certainly call you as soon as I can after school or in the evening. Kindergarten Orientation Packets:  If you have not yet received and read these, please send me a note in your child’s Home Folder and I will make sure I send them home.  Please read and review our Family Handbook on the PPS Website.

Bus / Dismissal Cards:  Your help is needed for me to get your child home or to daycare, safely.  Please be sure that your child’s card is secured to the outside of his/her backpack every day.  I do keep an updated list of where your child is to be delivered as well as the correct bus number he/she should take to get that location; it helps for teaching assistants and bus drivers to be able to see that information attached to your child’s backpack, in case a question comes up or there is any kind of change.  Thank you for your patience with our approximate pick-up and drop-off times.  These times will become much more regular over the next two weeks.  Remember, your child’s bus driver will not drop your child off if there is no adult to greet her/him.  They will bring your child safely back to school and we will try to reach you by phone so that you may come to school and pick up your child at the office.

That’s our first rule:  BE SAFE.

We’ve been learning how to walk safely in the classroom, how to sit in and move our chairs safely, how to line up safely, how to walk in the hallway, how to keep our hands at our sides, and most importantly, which things are safe to touch, which things are not safe to touch.

We practice using the playground equipment safely, every day, so we won’t get hurt.

LISTENING:  Daily, we practice the five behaviors that help us listen to adult directions.  We are very good at this, already.

FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS:  We practice following all adult directions because we know these directions are meant to keep us safe.

Our second rule:  BE RESPECTFUL

We practice cooperating with adult and classmates by using kind and caring words and actions.  We practice being respectfulby being patient, taking care of ourselves and each other, and by taking care of our school materials as well as each other’s personal materials.  We practice raising our hands and waiting to be called on before we speak in instructional settings; we practice how and who to ask for help.

Our third rule:  BE READY TO LEARN

We practice trying new things a lot.  Your child will gain confidence and feel successful as she/he learns new things.  We practice doing our best to follow adult directions and school rules.  This lets others learn, too.  We practice taking turns.  We practice being fair.  Me, too!  We practice using “indoor voices” and “outdoor voices”.  We’ve been working on how to clean up after ourselves after snack time.  Your children know that we do all these things so we can live, play, and learn happily, together, just like a family.

MATH: 

We’ve made designs and patterns with pattern blocks and have learned that everything each person creates is valuable because it is unique.  So, we’re learning that there is value in each others’ differences.  This is a building block for developing respect.

We are practicing counting, one-to-one correspondence with the meaning of our numbers, and we have been counting the days we have been in school so that we can have a whole-school celebration on 100^th Day!

We have been working on learning how to understand the Calendar and its workings.  Lots of us know the “Days of the Week” song!  We also graph the weather in a pie graph and a bar graph each day.

We took a school tour to find the office, the nurse’s office and the kitchen.

HOPES AND DREAMS:

Next week we’ll be working on identifying a learning goal for kindergarten- we call that “hopes and dreams”,  Please send in a picture of your child with your family so that we can use these to display with our hopes and dreams.  Thank you if you have already sent your picture in. 

We are learning to do “Jobs”, and how to order breakfast or a snack drink.   Please let your child know each morning whether she/he will need to order breakfast or a snack drink to go with the snack from home.  Then, tell your child whether she/he needs to order hot lunch or has a cold lunch in the backpack. 

 We’ll also learn how to use and share many, many more classroom materials.  Please know that embedded in all of these skills we’re singing songs, clapping chants, learning daily greetings, rhyming, learning each others’ names and learning which letter our own names begin with.  We’re also learning about our families, pets, favorite colors, and which foods we like to eat.  These games and discussions help us learn to categorize.

We have begun working on some fine motor skills such as how to hold crayons, markers and pencils, how to tie, zipping, and cutting with scissors.  I hope that all of our children will be able to tie shoes by Thanksgiving!  Please help us by practicing at home.

So, as you can see, we are very busy learning and caring for each other.  We also have a classroom assistant, Mrs. Priscilla Hammond, each day, as well as our Foster Grandmother, Miss Joyce, three days per week.  They are both great!

PARENT VOLUNTEERS:  We love having you in our classroom.  Here are some ways you can volunteer:

We need 2 room parents- your duties will mostly involve helping us to organize our Halloween, December Holidays and Valentine’s Day parties.  Your job involves calling parents to donate party supplies.

We need many Emergent Literacy Volunteers to read one on one with children and help them pack their reading folders for home.

We need 2 Four Winds Science Program volunteers.  This involves going to one lesson per month, then teaching that lesson to our class one time per month.  This is a really fun, hands-on program.  The students learn soooo much. 

If you have time to spare, and can spend even a few minutes any day,  please drop me a note about the volunteering that interests you and I will call you in the evening to make arrangements.

Dismissal Time:  We have had many, many changes so far this year and it is difficult to keep up with all of the daily changes.  Five and six year olds do best with consistency.  Without it, they tend to develop unnecessary anxiety.  Please try to arrange for your child to have the most consistent dismissal schedule as possible.  Thanks for your help.

A FEW REMINDERS:

·         Home Folders – These go back and forth to school every day.  Please check them daily.  Timely school notices will come home in these folders and I check them each day for notes, or forms from you.

·         Please send in a picture of your child with her/his family if you have not done so already.  Thanks!

·         Please send an old t-shirt to use as a paint smock if you have not done so already.

·          Please send in a change of clothes to keep in your child’s cubby.  That way, if we do get wet, we can easily change.

• Our Classroom Library – You are invited to come in any time and borrow books from me.  Sign them out on sticky notes that you’ll find on my desk.  I encourage you to read to your child every evening.

• Indoor and Outdoor Clothing – My classroom tends to be overheated, even in winter; our playground tends to be windier than your yard.  T-shirts and sweatshirts work well in these conditions.

• Guidance Counselor and Social Worker – Call the school anytime if you would like to set up a time to discuss any issues of concern for your child or your family.  They are terrific resources!

• Friday, September 16th – Picture Day.  Send your envelopes in anytime.  It is o.k. to choose not to purchase school pictures, however, we do take a picture of each child to be kept in your child’s office file for safety and security reasons.

• Thursday, Sept. 29th ^{@ 6:oo-7:30 p.m.}  – Open House - I hope to see all of my families!  We have been working on some surprises to share with you!

• Scholastic Book Orders – Two times each month I’ll send home a book order form for you to browse.  Please do not feel obligated to purchase books.  Our libraries have plenty of books you may borrow for free.  My goal is to provide your children with the opportunity to discover the joy of books as often as possible.

• Notes from home will get to me before any message left on my voice mail or e-mail.  We are very busy!  Thanks.

Have a wonderful week and let’s hope for sunny weather!

Sincerely,

Diane T.

Kindergarten Educator

Mrs. T.'s blog

Thanks to Mrs. Putnam for helping me to begin to learn how to create a blog!

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